Brave Girl

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This bag has been extremely satisfying to create. I have taken it from a freshly hunted (for meat) Arizona Mule Deer hide, to a piece of buttery soft buckskin, to a delicately finished functional art piece. First, there were many hours scraping the hide in the cool autumn sunshine, then the tanning, stretching, and smoking of it. Then visions of what I might fashion from it. To be honest, I kept the perfect buckskin for YEARS before I would cut into it. I thought...this just takes too much work to cut up. But knowing that I can tan as many hides as I need, I decided to finally honor the mule deer's remains by creating something useful with its precious hide. Hours upon hours in front of the wood-burning stove (sewing, beading, attaching, dreaming) to create a finished piece of bright beauty. I always use the most natural, low-tech techniques and materials in my work. Brain-tanned, cottonwood smoked, hand-stitched and beaded. The antler buttons are from naturally collected antler sheds found here in Arizona.